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Abstract. This article provides an account of institutional
transformation, the scope of which is greater than incremental adaptation
but less than paradigmatic change. It highlights the role in institutional
change of an institution's mechanism of reproduction, the competing
discourses of its supporters and critics, the strategic actions of
responsible policy makers, and the context of institutional bombardment.
It argues that non-paradigmatic institutional transformation is likely in
mature institutions based on a utilitarian logic, when actors internal to
the institution mount a cognitive and normative discourse for
institutional adaptation that is more compelling to authoritative policy
makers and the relevant political community than that of critics demanding
more radical reform. The success of this discursive exercise is in part
determined by the context within which the debate over reform unfolds.
Authoritative political actors also play a crucial role in the scope of
institutional transformation by virtue of their political strategies and
belief in the institution's system-wide functionality.

Abstract. This paper seeks to explain the origins of
Quebec's system of compensation for workplace accidents, which was
established in 1909 and functioned as the first component of Quebec's
welfare state. Besides being an important example of early social policy,
workers' compensation was also part of a transformation of liberalism
that embodied a significant change in liberal jurisprudence, from a system
of employer liability based on individual fault and responsibility to a
system of compensation regardless of fault. This paper argues that
Quebec's first Workmen's Compensation Act can only be understood
in terms of the interaction of three factors that are more commonly seen
as alternatives in the theoretical literature on policy development. The
first is the differential power resources of capital and labour, where the
interests of the former predominated over those of the latter in shaping
the provisions of the act. The second involves a structural dimension,
where the institutional autonomy of the legal process and jury system in
employer liability cases started to cause problems for capital
accumulation and provided a stimulus for change. And third, the acceptance
of the new idea of workers' compensation depended on a widespread
process of policy learning by both state and societal actors.
Theoretically, the paper tries to go beyond one-dimensional explanations
of policy development and to integrate analyses of interests, institutions
and ideas into a wider framework.

Abstract. As the formal “carriers” of the goals
and agendas of social movements, social movement organizations (SMOs) are
committed to both institutional and identity politics. Given this dual
engagement, SMOs must attempt to reconcile their intraorganizational
strategies for representation and mobilization with their intergroup
strategies for instrumental action in the policy process. In this article,
these tensions are explored in a case study of the National Action
Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) and its involvement in the policy
debate on reproductive technologies over 15 years. The article reveals how
the NAC's capacity to influence and participate in the formulation of
policy on reproductive technologies was challenged by its inability to
resolve competing demands: those of institutional politics, which called
for professional advocacy; and the internal demands emanating from its
grassroots member groups, for deliberation and participation. The article
also attributes the NAC's diminished effectiveness in the policy
process to broader changes in the relations between the Canadian state and
social movement organizations.

Abstract. This paper demonstrates that an important and
overlooked guide to understanding Canadian and US Supreme Court decision
making in tax cases is the “default,” or the party to whom the
court will decide in favour of if tax language is ambiguous. While
statutory interpretation methods influence the overall manner in which
courts approach tax-law decision making, the default is a more concrete
guide to evaluating Canadian and US Supreme Court decisions. The paper
first explores the statutory interpretation approaches referenced in
Canadian and American Supreme Court tax law cases. The paper then examines
the histories of defaults, including the cases in which they emerged and
the rationales given for their adoption. Third, based on original
research, the paper concludes that defaults have a profound effect on
income tax decisions by, in Canada, the Supreme Court favouring the
taxpayer and, in the United States, the Court deferring to the Internal
Revenue Service.

Abstract. Decision-makers do not act in a policy vacuum. As
they develop their programmes, they are aware of and influenced by
available historical examples. If we look closely at the European
Commission's education policy (measures as well as discourses), we
notice the existence of similarities in the strategies that it deploys in
this field and dynamics deployed much earlier by states engaged in
nation-building (i.e. the redefinition of peoples' spatial
representation of their community of belonging; the creation of a
framework of shared values; and the process of
‘detemporalisation-naturalisation’). This observation leads us
to believe that if the European Commission decided to get involved in the
field of education at an early stage in the integration process, it was
not only—as most people believe—to insure an effective
implementation of the Common market in 1957 or of the Single Market in
1987. Rather, through its education policy, the Commission also hopes to
create and foster a EU identity that the founding fathers and subsequent
‘Europeans’ considered necessary for achieving their goals of
creating “ an ever closer union ”.

Abstract. This study discusses theoretical concepts from two
strands of public law literature, namely rational choice accounts of
strategic behaviour and notions of judicial leadership, and examines their
relevance for explaining changes in judicial behaviour on the Canadian
Supreme Court. Specifically, we test whether a justice who is elevated to
the chief position strategically alters his/her patterns of judicial
behaviour. The study uses a multiple regression equation that controls for
rival hypotheses, and uncovers evidence of strategic change by all three
modern chief justices. While Justices Dickson and Lamer appear to have
consolidated their position as task leaders once they were promoted to the
helm of the Court, Justice McLachlin made a remarkable change in her
dissent behaviour to emerge as the preeminent social leader on her own
Court. The study demonstrates that rational choice models of strategic
behaviour and judicial leadership are useful theoretical frameworks for
explaining changes in behaviour once recent Canadian justices were
promoted to the chief position. Moreover, the findings illustrate the
importance of incorporating critical institutional features when studying
changing behaviour in other high courts around the world.

Abstract. In normative political theory, the position called
dualism maintains that the two practical problems of institutional design
and personal conduct require, at the fundamental level, two different
kinds of practical principle. The most influential proponent of dualism is
John Rawls, and his theory of “justice as fairness” has
recently been criticized by the monists Liam Murphy and G.A. Cohen. In
this paper I argue that if Rawlsians are going to salvage his dualistic
framework from the challenge raised by Murphy and Cohen, they will have to
reject Rawls's “political conception” of justice in
favour of the partially comprehensive view defended in A Theory of
Justice. I contend that dualism is only a viable approach to
normative political theory if both aspects of the dualistic framework are
emphasized.

Abstract. Utilitarianism is usually defined as the doctrine
that morally right and legally just conduct maximizes the good for the
most people, and this doctrine is usually criticized on the grounds that
it licenses conduct known by other means to be wrong or unjust. Yet Jeremy
Bentham, the historical prototype of a utilitarian, maintained that
individuals ought to do only what promises to serve their personal
interests, and he offered utility as the test not of what is
right or just but of what ought to be made so by instituting
better rules. Textbook utilitarianism is a better fit for the
“theological utilitarians” William Paley and Henry
Sidgwick.

Abstract. Locke's teaching on executive power is widely
seen as one of the most problematic features of his constitutional theory.
It is generally interpreted to be either an endorsement of
extra-constitutional prerogative or a statement of radical legislative
supremacy. However, the primary assumption underlying both of these
positions—namely, that Locke saw law and constitution as
coextensive—is mistaken. On the contrary, Locke's treatment of
executive power illuminates his conception of constitutional authority
that is distinct from and superior to normal legislation, but also
confines prerogative within fundamental legal limits. Locke thus
adumbrated many of the key elements of liberal constitutionalism familiar
to us today.

Abstract. Using OLS regression with World Values Survey data
across 18 OECD countries, this article makes two major arguments. Firstly,
if a dominant party is ideologically congruent with an individual, its
dominance enhances the effect of party ideology on individual ideology. If
incongruent, greater dominance only inhibits this effect. Secondly, if
individuals find the dominant party ideologically congruent, as their
political awareness increases, the effect of that party's ideology
rises monotonically. If incongruent, the effect of party ideology first
rises and then falls back. Therefore, party dominance leads ultimately to
increasing ideological polarization between the dominant party's
supporters and opponents.

Advocacy Groups is one title in the Canadian Democratic Audit
series. Addressing the “democratic malaise” that results from
“a substantial decline in Canadians' confidence in their
democratic practices and institutions,” (vii) the series
“includes nine volumes examining specific areas of Canadian
democratic life”; a tenth, synthetic volume “makes sense out
of the different approaches and findings found in the rest of the
series” (viii).

Toward the Charter: Canadians and the Demand for a National Bill
of Rights, 1929–1960, Christopher MacLennan, Montreal and
Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003, pp. xii, 234.

This is an excellent and timely book, providing a review of the
pivotal historical events and the actions of civil libertarians and
parliamentarians that resulted in the statutory Canadian Bill of Rights in
1960. Indeed, the true value of this book is that it suggests the limited
nature of the present debate on judicial power and of the tendency to see
the Charter of Rights as simply an institutional dialogue between the
Supreme Court and the Parliament of Canada. MacLennan's work reminds
us that the entrenchment of the Charter cannot be understood without
considering the historical legacy of the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights, and
the important struggles of interest groups, civil liberties organizations,
academics such as F.R. Scott and members of Parliament such as John
Diefenbaker, all of whom encountered strong resistance to the idea of a
national bill of rights from the Liberal governments of Mackenzie King and
Louis St. Laurent.

Governing Ourselves? The Politics of Canadian Communities,
Marie Louise McAllister, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press,
2004, pp. 334.

This book will become a reference text for urban students and scholars
with an interest in the Canadian urban local governance system because of
its outstanding and up-to-date bibliography, a significant achievement
given the volume of academic contributions on recent municipal reforms.
Marie Louise McAllister introduces the politics of Canadian communities as
a topic of contention—the position that local politics matters is
not obvious and, in fact, may actually be arguable. However, she makes a
strong case for a far-reaching but nuanced answer.

From Subjects to Citizens: A Hundred Years of Citizenship in
Australia and Canada, Pierre Boyer, Linda Cardinal and David Headon,
eds., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2004, pp. xvi, 328.

Citizenship is no longer viewed as a concept restricted to the
relationship between an individual and the state. It is now seen as
encompassing the series of overlapping identities that define an
individual's relationship to a political community. This means that
discussions of citizenship are now likely to involve an examination of
individual and group rights, political participation and an
individual's sense of belonging. The collection of conferences papers
under review pushes this expanded notion of citizenship to its limits, and
beyond. While the nominal topic is “a hundred years of citizenship
in Australia and Canada,” the contents of the book include chapters
on the Australian exploration of Antarctica, Nellie Melba as a famous
Australian, the secret ballot and the franchise in Australia, government
sponsorship of culture in Canada, and a fascinating (if depressing) study
of evidentiary law relating to rape in two early twentieth-century cases.
In addition to the startling range of topics, the styles of analysis and
disciplinary backgrounds of the contributions vary widely, from literary
to mainstream social science. A few chapters are more notable for their
polemical approach than their content.

Although in some ways perpetuating a counter-factual narrative about
positivist policy analysis and research, Frank Fischer's
Reframing Public Policy is an important book because it provides
critical perspectives on the dominant forms of inquiry while also
articulating in detail complementary or alternative methodologies. This
book is not likely to disappoint followers—nor is it likely to
persuade sceptics.

What distinguishes sustainable development as a governance challenge?
William Lafferty characterizes it as a normative long-term
challenge that has been formulated “outside-in,”
i.e., sustainable development has been developed and decided upon on an
international level, and therefore first needs to be communicated
“at home.” It is a transformative challenge in that
it requires the decoupling of economic and social development from further
damage to natural life-support systems; and as the problems with the use
and protection of natural life-support systems do not fall neatly within
the border of states, there is a need for co-operation on the
regional and global levels. Finally, Lafferty speaks of a task
“confronted by holistic interactions, interdependencies and
unpredictable results” (20).